root log: April 2006

So we're gonna try to get root logs back in the swing of things. It's funny to consider that after 7 years, we still have major developments on the site.

Minor but useful changes

Your filled nodeshells - acsorbic did a fine job of this (with a little SQL help from yours truly), so now you can see nodeshells you made that other people have filled. (I forgot I had even created the Marathon Man nodeshell!)

For editors: node notes from writeups now display on e2nodes - another good tool from ascorbic, to help eds on their path to Zen enlightenment.

Things we Actually Got Done

(For editors only) the ability to (un)hide things on new writeups.

Acting more or less as a proxy for the brilliance of call, we optimized the message table a bit and hopefully cut down on some of the longer database query calls.

Just FYI: If you have a lot of archived messages, please consider moving them off-site into a text file and deleting them from the system. We have 1.5 million messages, so needless to say, pulling them all down can sometimes take a long time, and it's those outlier "really long" queries that in turn suck up server response time for the rest of us, too. (Note: this is not some secret ultimate solution, but every bit helps.)

The ability to make any pad private or public. So you can share some things without sharing everything.

The (future) ability to have collaboration nodes. This is gonna be a level power, folks, but we're trying to make it happen.

For Level 7+ users, the ability to change the main catbox topic. A few limits: only once per 24 hours, and we'll take it away if you don't all play nice.

The New Frontpage - So far, I've gotten a lot of feedback, and hopefully we'll get some more after the first round gets processed. I'm going to work on some alternative designs, and we're going to open up a graphic design contest soon for ways to brighten up the place and make it better for guest users and more useful for regular noders.

A new lede writeuptype. Details are murky, but it will essentially be nonvotable summaries of factual topics for a quick education. Bonus XP to be awarded to people who write gooduns. Like I said, murky, but approaching.